Throw N Mow thread...
- Thread starter OkieKubota
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catscratch
Well-Known Member
Congrats!
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jlane35
Well-Known Member
You did all the hard work by answering my questions! I just did what you said. This is just shy of a 5 acre field. I already have it marked off into 1 acre sections. I will be transitioning the entire field into throw and mow. I can’t wait to experiment with all the seed mixture possibilities.
jlane35
Well-Known Member
No, one acre I threw into buckwheat and sunflowers. And the other was a failed chufa plot.
I did spray both fields because I had lots of grasses in the buckwheat. But I hope to go heavier on buckwheat in the future so I don’t have to spray.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
I'm just glad it worked for ya. I enjoyed the messaging and figuring things out. Feel free to ask anything anytime. Congrats again, it looks great!
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Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
What kind of cereals did you throw? How tall was your clover? How heavy did you seed it? Did you get rain after planting?
I find that rye establishes better in existing clover than other cereals. Seeding really heavy when broadcasting into existing crops is a must. Mowing the clover to 4" after seeding is key to establish cereals in clover. A timely rain is also helpful, the seed won't do anything until it gets moisture.
I overseeded a plot on labor day and didn't get a drop of moisture for 3 weeks and the seed laid there all that time, but quickly germinated and established once it rained, and looks beautiful now. Another clover plot that i did a ryethrow n mow in midseptember is up around 6" and growing thick right now, the deer are hog wild on it and will be eating the rye component all winter, sans snow cover.
Check the above list, if you did everything right it should be growing! Cereals generally stick up past the clover and are easy to see due to a faster growth rate. Deer munch everything together.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
I seeded wheat, rye, peas, and radishes in a pouring 1.5” rain. I didn’t mow though because the clover had been hayed just a couple weeks before by the landowner. I could see winter rye coming up fast within a week in a bare spot, but that spot gets trampled pretty bad because I’ve been putting ear corn from our cut field in it in front of the camera. The clover averages 8” tall and is growing fast still, the deer are hammering the plot, which is pretty good sized, 1.5 acres. I seeded it with about 175 lbs of seed.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Here’s a picture I took in that bare spot a week after throwing.
As you can see from the picture, there are cool season grasses growing too, that makes it tough right now to tell what is what. I’m assuming it will be easier when the grasses go dormant and the cereal grain keeps growing.
As you can see from the picture, there are cool season grasses growing too, that makes it tough right now to tell what is what. I’m assuming it will be easier when the grasses go dormant and the cereal grain keeps growing.
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Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Yes, that's correct, once frost hits us in the north the grasses start turning brown and the cereals stay green. I've started to scrap the brassica component for interseeding and putting 200 lb per acre of straight rye throw n mow into existing ladino clover for winter feed, and that's been doing fantastic for us. People say that their deer don't eat rye but our deer seem to have developed a taste for it, if we have several varieties of plots out, anytime between October and April they favor the rye. Other times of year it won't be touched.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
You say a couple of weeks after it's been hayed, and that could be the problem. By doing a throw n mow, the leaves of the clover are mostly off, allowing a lot of sunlight to the new seeds. After several weeks the clover has leafed over to the point that there's not enough sunlight to get germinated seed going. I've proved this by planting 3 kinds of grain into 10" high clover with my no-till drill. Perfect seed to soil contact and good moisture, but only about 10% of the grain plants grew, due to lack of sunlight.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
What date did you do this planting? Our growing season window to seed anything and expect adequate growth for deer browsing ends about midseptember.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
T&M can take a week longer than conventional planting to get growing, but with those planting dates the timing should not be an issue. I'm still thinking the clover may have been too thick.
Anyway, just as a recap for people analyzing their fall plot efforts, as I mentioned above, my fall plot success has gone up drastically with planting earlier than the recommended dates for our area, and seeding much heavier than the recommended rates.
TX-Aggie
Active Member
Visited my property for hunting season this past week. The throw and mow plots are holding their own against the disc'd plots.
My uncle had called my dad stating that the throw and mow plots were a bust a month ago. I swore to them it was due to no rain - the typical rain event around labor day was early this year by a week. Our area of SW Missouri seems to have rain through July 4th, gets dry until a short burst in early Sept, then starts raining again in late Sept/early Oct. Since we missed the rain event, the seed just sat there for almost a month. It is coming on nicely now - in fact the only place on the farm that had radish/turnip bulbs are the throw and mow plots (albeit very very small bulbs).
My father even admitted that the throw and mow plots are doing much better than he expected. We have cameras and cages showing deer utilization. He also looked at the exclusion cages compared to the rest of the plot and commented (without my prompting) "we need to expand these plots, there isn't enough food for the deer".
I took a Doe from one of the throw and mow plots. We took 7 deer off the property so far this season, all but 2 were taken in the plots or just off the plots. The other 2 were in the oaks getting acorns.
I'm calling 2020 a continued success year for our plotting. Now that hunting is over for my father and i, we are starting to plan for 2021. Is it too early to plan? Nahhhhh, i was "dreaming" of what to do next while sitting in the stands. Agenda items for 2021 currently discussed : clear timber for a new 1 acre plot on central ridgetop, expand 2 smaller plots into 1 larger plot, clear non-nut producing trees along one road to allow for a thin and winding clover plot, and cut shooting lanes for 2 new stand locations.
My uncle had called my dad stating that the throw and mow plots were a bust a month ago. I swore to them it was due to no rain - the typical rain event around labor day was early this year by a week. Our area of SW Missouri seems to have rain through July 4th, gets dry until a short burst in early Sept, then starts raining again in late Sept/early Oct. Since we missed the rain event, the seed just sat there for almost a month. It is coming on nicely now - in fact the only place on the farm that had radish/turnip bulbs are the throw and mow plots (albeit very very small bulbs).
My father even admitted that the throw and mow plots are doing much better than he expected. We have cameras and cages showing deer utilization. He also looked at the exclusion cages compared to the rest of the plot and commented (without my prompting) "we need to expand these plots, there isn't enough food for the deer".
I took a Doe from one of the throw and mow plots. We took 7 deer off the property so far this season, all but 2 were taken in the plots or just off the plots. The other 2 were in the oaks getting acorns.
I'm calling 2020 a continued success year for our plotting. Now that hunting is over for my father and i, we are starting to plan for 2021. Is it too early to plan? Nahhhhh, i was "dreaming" of what to do next while sitting in the stands. Agenda items for 2021 currently discussed : clear timber for a new 1 acre plot on central ridgetop, expand 2 smaller plots into 1 larger plot, clear non-nut producing trees along one road to allow for a thin and winding clover plot, and cut shooting lanes for 2 new stand locations.
This method works pretty well when conditions are perfect. My dad screwed up by mowing BEFORE spreading the seed, but luckily we had a really heavy rain that got the seed under the thatch. We spread 50# of rye and 50# of wheat with the big spreader then I spread 20# of crimson clover, Arrowleaf clover, durana clover, and chicory. The ground was already wet then we got a really hard rain followed by some lighter rains and misty days. This picture was taken today - 12 days after the “throw” part.
TX-Aggie
Active Member
Added pictures from my earlier post :
This was 2 weeks after the rain started
The green in this is a throw n mow plot on a highline
The green in the distance is a throw n mow clover plot that we also did frost seeding as well
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
This was 2 weeks after the rain started
The green in this is a throw n mow plot on a highline
The green in the distance is a throw n mow clover plot that we also did frost seeding as well
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
jlane35
Well-Known Member
I don’t have any up close pictures of the throw and mow plot I did. But this is the latest into the season my plot is still green and producing a substantial amount of food. Between throw and mow and using winter rye, wheat, and oats it’s a game changer. I don’t think I have any previous pictures of this buck but he sure looks like a dandy. 
